The Rookery

Today we celebrated May Day at Prairie Creek. It is a cherished tradition at our school. We began with a song (in Spanish; we combined May Day with Cinco de Mayo this year), then we went off on our parade through Castle Rock. Upon our return, the fifth graders did…

We hope that an honors project marks both an end and a beginning for our students.  In many ways, it is the culmination of their academic careers here at Prairie Creek.  We know from alumni that it often serves as a model and a benchmark for their future "big projects."…

 It's Honoring Week here at Prairie Creek, my favorite week of the year.  I love watching our students shine and share what they know.  I love watching them teach.  The ironic juxtaposition of honoring week and MCAs has been remarked upon before so I won't spend much time here talking…

When I started this engineering theme with the Herons, I had an idea of how it would probably progress: sawhorse towers, best bridge designs, ending with some bridge designing and building (perhaps creating a bridge over our creek!)  The Herons, however, took this theme in a rather different direction.  After…

One of the things we hope to do at Prairie Creek and in the Herons is to create students (and citizens) who are able to step up to the plate and get things done.  They go beyond completing the tasks we set before them and ask, "What next?" or, even…

The Herons have taken to our engineering theme with great enthusiasm.  On Monday the students brainstormed a list of famous buildings/locales they were interested in studying and building.  Their list included buildings from every corner of the world, from early civilizations to new construction. The air was full of quick…

Every Tuesday and Thursday the 5th grade band members play a little concert after lunch, often in the Herons.  A crowd gathers to hold sheet music, watch, request songs, and cheer for the performers.  On Tuesday the concert became a bit more formal.  Band director Roger Jenni visited Prairie Creek,…

  Well, we're off by two days but today the Big Birds had a lot of fun celebrating the number pi.  We began by discovering pi by measuring all the circles we could find around the school.  By dividing the circumference by the diameter, students found that the quotient was always…

 One of the things I like most about teaching probability is that I still encounter situations that I have to puzzle out.  Of course, I enjoy that type of thing but I also appreciate having a genuine opportunity to model to the students how I muddle through a new concept.…